


Taken

by Pondermoniums



Series: Harringrove Ficlets [6]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Boys In Love, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romantic Gestures, Roommates, from tumblr, head canon, loose timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:47:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28791213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pondermoniums/pseuds/Pondermoniums
Summary: Billy gets into college, and in the words of Trixie Mattel: “Gay people flip out when they meet someone they like and they move in together,” or: If you’re not moving in way too soon with your boyfriend to avoid the Straights, are you even living the full gay experience?Alternatively: Billy and Steve move in together for Billy to attend college and they're basically married.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Series: Harringrove Ficlets [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2058345
Comments: 12
Kudos: 59





	Taken

**Author's Note:**

> This started as just another head canon rant on tumblr, but everyone responded so, so sweetly to it that I'm continuing it here <3 the first chapter is basically the tumblr post, but the following chapters will be more narrative. Not a whole lot of time line, just boys being domestic and in love <3

Billy gets into college, and in the words of Trixie Mattel: “Gay people flip out when they meet someone they like and they move in together,” or alternatively: If you’re not moving in way too soon with your boyfriend to avoid the Straights, are you even living the full gay experience?

So Steve moves off to college with him, and sure, they have their initial living together issues. Steve just _can’t_ do cereal for breakfast every. single. morning. And Billy is truly _over_ Steve’s high maintenance collection of air-dry, delicate cycle laundry by the end of their first month together.

But only Steve can do Billy’s hair the way he likes it when he has a godforsaken 8am class, and he’s dozing while sitting on the toilet for Steve to do his hair. It’s only a scissor trim to his ends and a man-bun, but that curl in front of his forehead is *chef’s kiss. And both boys are sworn on a kick to the balls that nobody gets to know that Steve colors in Billy’s brows with a tiny bit of makeup. Just to really make that slash in his right brow pop. At least until they really settle in and have a circle of gender-fluid (or punk) friends who demand to know what products the boys use.

But Billy uses all of his guest meal tickets for Steve and they both steal from the dessert table in the dining hall like they’re smuggling whiskey to a speakeasy. They do establish a big friend group, and of course they’re both invited to college parties, both in off campus housing and in the fraternity buildings.

Billy. And his roommate, Steve.

That is, until Steve’s standing with a pair of girls, tequila sunrise in hand, while they try and get the scoop on Billy Hargrove.

“I _love_ the versatility of his facial hair. I don’t care for the stache, but tomorrow if he has a full scruff, I’ll gag.”

Steve laughed and shook his head. “I don’t control that.”

Her friend piped in, “No, no, it’s the contrast between all the lights and darks. Those bright eyes and dark brows—”

“So I’m boring as mud,” Steve sassed.

They both erupted in laughter and consolations. “No! I’m just saying, Billy’s dreamy. In like an editorial, Hollywood, I thought that was fake, kind of way.”

“Steve, be honest. What’s he like in the morning?”

He gave it some thought while the three of them gazed across the party at the man participating in beer pong. “He smells like frosted flakes and looks like a bunny fluffed up with a hair dryer.”

One of the girls spat vodka and both hollered so loud that Billy looked up in curiosity. He found Steve laughing and smiled, his blue eyes sparkling like topazes from alcohol and witnessing Steve’s blushed cheeks.

Then Billy crooks his finger, and Steve comes right over. “What are you talking about?”

“You.” Steve pushes his knee against Billy’s leg.

“Yeah?” Billy anchored his fingers in the belt loop on the back of Steve’s jeans.

“The girls are calling you ‘dreamy.’“

“What are you calling me?”

“Fluffy.”

The charm faltered on Billy’s face. “Excuse me?”

The girls on the other side of the party just stand still with their jaws on the floor.

• • • • •

During an occasion when Steve picks Billy up from class, it’s a new semester and Billy’s hitting it off with some of his classmates. It’s an afternoon class, so the winter daylight savings is already casting them all in golden oranges as they talk about dinner plans. They don’t know Steve yet, but the lanky guy with glossy hair that flutters in the breeze and sways with his long strides is hard to miss.

Billy hears someone whistle under their breath. “Where does _he_ hide? The Sciences?”

Another girl laughed. “Biology or chemistry?”

“Who cares? I’ll wear a lab coat over lingerie. Just sign me up.”

They’re standing outside the Language building when Steve walks up and meets Billy’s expectant - and blatantly appraising - gaze with a smile and a bottle of water. “You tired from flexing your brain?”

Billy’s smirk cracks into his special, nose wrinkled, laughing smile. He feels the warmth of the bottle in his palm and holds it up to see the lemon slices drifting in it. “Yeah. It’s a real debate, Spanish or Chinese for dinner.”

He drinks and tastes honey and lemon while the heat infuses his throat, cold and raw from the winter air. “Mm...this is good. Thanks.”

“Sure. Do you mean the new place that opened up on Main Street?” Steve’s body twisted to and fro, like he was bashfully divulging a secret. “There might be a tall order of tapas waiting at home, getting lonely with that fancy tequila you like.”

Billy’s expression brightened. He stood a little straighter, his classmates forgotten and dumbfounded as they watched the boys stroll down the brick-lain path. “You didn’t get any with pork, right?”

“No, I know your stomach. I got a big box of rice too. I ate half of it waiting for you.”

“Thanks for restraining yourself. Hey, for no reason at all: biology or chemistry?”

Steve glanced at him before tilting his head with a shrug. “I took chemistry twice, and the hallway always reeked when the biology class had to cut up dead things.”

“Yeah, I’d peg you more as a psychology guy,” Billy agreed.

“Me?” Steve teased by making his step cross into Billy’s way, bumping their bodies together. “You’re not talking about whatever science credit you need?”

“No, but I would find it hilarious to know what the brain is doing when it finds out the prettiest boy on campus is taken.”

**Author's Note:**

> A special thanks to everyone who shared this on Tumblr! Your tags made me grin like an idiot and enabled me into writing more of these boys <3
> 
> The next one will be what the boys do for Halloween <3
> 
> [The original tumblr post is here ~](https://pondermoniums.tumblr.com/post/640428823586963456/established-relationship-au-billy-gets-into)
> 
> [Twitter~](https://twitter.com/Pondermoniums)   
>  [Tumblr~](http://pondermoniums.tumblr.com/)


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